How to be a King: Nov. 23, 2025

Year C, Christ the King                                                       Luke 23:33-43      

               Many of us know the story of Ruby Bridges.  Ruby was one of four first-graders selected to integrate two elementary schools in New Orleans in 1960. She was sent alone to William Frantz Public School.  Every day she walked into school surrounded by adults screaming threats and insults at her because she had the audacity to attend a school she had every right to be at.

          There was a psychiatrist studying the students who were helping desegregate schools in the south who took a special interest in Ruby.  He was amazed by her courage in the midst of so much hate and bigotry.  He began meeting with her every week to help her through the trauma. Ruby’s teacher mentioned to him that she had noticed Ruby moving her lips as she was walking into school every day. The psychiatrist asked Ruby who she was talking to. She told him that she was praying for the protestors.  He asked why she would pray for those who were so mean to her. She said that was what her parents and her pastor taught her.  She said, “I just keep praying for them and hope God will be good to them. . . . I always pray the same thing. ‘Please, dear God, forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing.’”[1]

That comes straight from our reading from the Gospel of Luke.  Jesus prayed that exact prayer from the cross as he was slowly dying, while people mocked him and called him, “King of the Jews.”  This is one of the moments when I want to argue with Jesus.  Are you sure they don’t know what they were doing? These were adults here.  Of course they knew what they were doing.  Scholars have debated this line from the text a great deal.  Who is the they? Is it the soldiers? The leaders who ordered the killing? The crowd?  I am not sure that matters.  It’s so easy to get lost in the minutiae rather than accepting the words that are clear—that was Jesus forgiving the people who were torturing him. One of Jesus’ final acts on this earth was to show mercy to people who didn’t seem to deserve mercy at all.

This is the last Sunday of what we refer to as ordinary time in the church year…the last Sunday before the new church year begins…which is Advent.   This Sunday is usually referred to as Christ the King Sunday.  If you look at the readings, they all have some connection to kings or kingdom.  In seminary, about 20 years ago, I was taught to be wary of this king language.  Some people suggested that instead we refer to this Sunday as “Reign of Christ.”  People were worried that this king imagery reinforced a hierarchical nature of power rather than the humility which Jesus consistently displayed.  He was a servant leader rather than a king.  But over the years I have learned more about the origins of this feast day and I have come to perceive it as one of the more subversive feast days of the church. 

In 1925, Pope Pius created the feast day of Christ the King.  It was less than 6 years after World War I ended, 14 years before the second world war began.  It was the very same year that Hitler published Mein Kampf and Mussolini became the dictator of Italy.  While the right side had won World War I, totalitarianism was on the rise and the pope was close enough to see it all.  Creating a feast day to celebrate the kingship of Christ was a way to remind the world that Christians serve a different kind of king and that king is above all the leaders of the world, whether they recognize that king or not.

All four Gospels say that there was a sign on the cross that said, “This is the king of the Jews.”  If all 4 Gospels agreed on that, then we can be certain that is an important point.  We are so accustomed to hearing this king language for Jesus, we don’t get too surprised when we read this title.  Yet this was probably hysterical to the people who created that sign.  Crucifixion was a shameful way to die.   It was for common criminals, usually criminals who had upset the Roman Empire. They used this spectacle to scare people into submission. This is what happens to people who don’t respect Rome.  Their point was that no real king would die such a death. If he was a king, an army would have been at his beck and call. He would not have to suffer. 

Here is the great irony of the scene…under that sign that mocked him, declaring the title ridiculous…he showed what it was to be a real leader.  In forgiving the people who killed him and telling one of the criminals next to him that he would be with him in paradise---he was showing mercy.  Mercy and love is what defined his kingship, not displays of force or a need to take town the opposition.

So often in modern Christianity, we allow others to define our faith. Instead of dismissing the notion of Jesus as a king because of how the world defines kingship…what if instead, we insist that Jesus is what defines a king, not the other way around?

            I know that many of us are frustrated by the leadership in our country right now, and those who aren’t angry now were probably very frustrated a few years ago.  There is a part of me that keeps waiting for that one person to come out the government and be that leader that we all need and want.  We just want someone to save us, to fix it all.  And I agree that we need better leadership and we need to hold people accountable.  But I also think we need to remember that no person can save us or this country.  It is only God who saves.  God also gives us the strength to save ourselves, so we can help others.

One of the frequent themes in the Old Testament is of the Hebrew people longing for this amazing king who will save them.  God warned them not to rely on a king, but they refused to listen.  They kept praying for some man to be that perfect king and that person never came.  They were always disappointed. God sent Jesus (a very unexpected king) to show us all that what we want is not always what we need.  The Jewish people wanted an all powerful Messiah to save them from the Romans, and instead God came to earth as a human who was then killed by the Romans.  A crucified king who could not save himself, yet somehow saved us all. That is who we worship.  

To many, he died as a failure…but  showing mercy is never failure.  It’s courage.  That display of love and compassion has inspired people throughout history—people like Ruby Bridges to walk through hoards of people screaming and spitting and still manage to pray for them.  Jesus’ mercy and love inspired Mother Theresa, Dorthy Day, Oscar Romero, Martin Luther King and so many whose names we don’t know. It can inspire us all. A king who can inspire that kind of courage 2000 years after he died, that’s a king worth worshipping.  May God’s mercy and compassion continue to inspire us to pray for those who wish us harm and find strength to be the leaders who lead with compassion and mercy.

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[1] https://www.christiancentury.org/first-words/when-ruby-bridges-prayed-her-enemies

What Holy Does: Nov. 2

 Year C, All Saint Sunday                        Luke 6:20-31         

          All Saint’s Sunday can be a little complicated.  We call it All Saints Day, but that’s confusing for a lot of Christians, especially anyone who has spent time in the Roman Catholic Church.  Catholics and Episcopalians share the belief that all baptized Christians (alive and dead) are considered saints.  This is how the apostle Paul used the word saint.   We hear that in his letter to the Ephesians: “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints…” When Paul used the word saint, he was always referring to the faithful, but imperfect Christians. 

What has led to some confusion, is that at some point the Roman Catholic Church created a process of canonization or beatification (and I am simplifying this greatly right now) in which a pope would declare a person worthy of veneration.  The pope doesn’t create a saint as they are already a saint because they are a Christian….the pope declares them worthy of veneration.  What is a bit confusing, is the person then has a “Saint” in front of their name…despite the fact that we are all saints.  I could refer to our baptismal candidates as Saint Matt, Saint George and Saint Owen….but let’s face it, that sounds a bit odd.

          What further complicates All Saints Day is that we read the names of those who have died in the last year and we have baptisms.  Reading the names of those who have died reinforces the idea that you have to be dead to be a saint.  In baptizing people we are reminding one another that saints are also the living.  I wonder if instead of asking what it means to be a saint, it would be helpful to consider what it means to be holy. 

In Hebrew and Greek (which are the languages that most of our Bible is translated from) holy meant to be set apart. To be holy meant to be separate from the world.  This caused some people to physically separate themselves from other people.  That’s why so many in the early church went to the dessert, to seek a deeper relationship with God away from everyone else.  It’s why even today there are Christians who think they should only associate with other Christians, as if non Christians would defile them in some way. 

I think one of the strengths of the Episcopal Church is that while we came from the Church of England, the Episcopal Church was really established in the very early years of our nation right here at this church and they were surrounded by different denominations and religions, very much thanks to the vision of William Penn.  Those church leaders who were around at that time understood that holiness didn’t mean that one had to be separated from those who weren’t like them.

          Yet over the years, especially the last 20-30 years, the Episcopal Church has been criticized for not being set apart quite enough.  We have been accused of going along with popular culture instead of standing up for the doctrines of our faith. Maybe that is true sometimes. Occasionally we can compromise a little too much.  But often we have worked along side popular culture because it’s actually the Christ like thing to do.  Ordaining women at the height of the women’s movement.  Did we do that just because that was what the public was telling us needed to happen, or were we listening to the movement of the Holy Spirit and studying the scriptures as well the traditions of the early church? When we consecrated the first openly gay man as a bishop, were we going along  with popular culture or were we once again moving with the Holy Spirit and as our baptismal covenant says---respecting the dignity of every human being?  I am biased, but I believe we were moving with the Holy Spirit. We have made many mistakes in the church over the years, but we have also corrected a lot of those mistakes, often with the help of people who are not in the church.

          Today, an interesting thing is happening. Popular culture is moving in a different way.   Many are trying to rebrand Christianity, in ways that I think are contrary to much of what Jesus taught. Some are trying to make Christianity the religion of the empire and that was never Jesus’ intention.  We Episcopalians have a unique opportunity right now to be counter cultural, as the church was when it started.  We can be holy in a different sense of the word.  We are not set apart from the world, we are just refusing to go along with what popular culture is trying to sell as Christianity. 

I was struggling with this sermon I asked my 9 year old son what he thought holy meant and he said, “When you host a party, you wash everyone’s feet.”  He didn’t try to define holiness.  He said what it does.  Holiness isn’t a state of being. It’s action.  And that is exactly what our Gospel is about.  After Jesus shared the beatitudes where he lifted up a very counter cultural message he said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.  Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you…”

          It’s probably one of the hardest messages of the Christian faith.  It would be easier to be separate from these people who are hating us, abusing us, stealing from us, begging….  But holiness, and saintliness is not about how we separate ourselves.  It’s how we connect ourselves to one another.  That doesn’t mean we don’t stand for what we believe in even when it is contrary to what others are saying we should believe.  It means we don’t stand alone.  We continue to stand in the midst of the chaos, the crime, the self righteousness, the anger, the hate….all those things we want to ignore.  We stand in the midst, sometimes holding up the others who can’t stand for themselves because they have been too beaten down, too battered.  We stand with them or we don’t bother standing at all.

          This is where the community of the saints comes together. This is why we read the names of the beloved faithful who have died over this past year and we baptize children who have no idea what they are getting into (but have parents and godparents who do) and we baptize adults like Matt who knows mostly what he is getting himself into.  You are not just being baptized for yourselves, but for the whole community, so you have strength to stand for others, the strength to do the hard things like loving our enemies….even the really really annoying ones.  And it’s ok if you are not there yet, whether you are a child, or a young adult, or you are 94.  I am not sure I am ever going to get good at loving my enemy.

          But I worship a man named Jesus who was born as a baby to poor parents and was killed by the Roman empire for crimes he didn’t commit and forgave those people as he was dying on the cross….and then rose from the dead because he wasn’t just a really good guy. He’s God and he showed us all—not just what holiness looks like, but what it does.